Private collection, Switzerland;

From whom acquired by the present owner circa 1986.

This painting relates closely to a work in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, attributed to the workshop of Jacopo Bassano.¹ Another version, also given to Jacopo's workshop, that is populated by fewer animals, is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.²

The composition depicts the moment in which Noah has left the ark and renders thanks to God by taking ‘of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offer[in✨g] burnt offerings on the altar’ (Genesis 8: 20). The scene stretches into the background, beyond the two huts under constructiꩲon, while the foreground accommodates the animals, as well as part of the elderly patriarch’s family – all those saved from the great Flood.

¹ Inv. no. 105; oil on canvas, 135 x 191 cm.; .

² Inv. no. P000023; oil on canvas, 80 x 113 cm.; .